County recycling center to open soon

Saturday

Nov 17, 2012 at 3:00 PM

Opening will happen after containers are delivered

By Dennis PelhamDaily Telegram Staff Writer

Lenawee County is to be in the recycling business within a week.

A collection center at Race and River streets in Adrian has been completed, and three automatic compactors are wired and ready for service. The site will open as soon as a hauler hooks up containers to the compactors, county administrator Martin Marshall said Friday.

“I’m definitely pleased to get this near to completion,” said Marshall. He has overseen planning for the project since the latest version of a county recycling program was started early last year.

“We seem to have everything in place and hooked up,” Marshall said. A contractor selected Thursday to haul materials from the site is to bring in its containers within days after a contract is signed.

“I would expect we will open informally before next weekend,” he said. An opening ceremony is being planned after the solid waste committee’s Dec. 5 meeting.

Four members of a committee that oversees the county’s solid waste department went over proposals from four waste haulers on Thursday and chose Republic Services.

Its proposal and cost of $226 per container was not the lowest. Modern Waste Systems of Napoleon submitted a $191 per haul bid.

Marshall said committee members picked Republic Services due to the existing relationship the county has with it and the fact it has a nearby facility for its hauling operation.

The company owns the Adrian Landfill, which collects a tipping fee on trash that funds the solid waste department. Its hauling operation facility is located on Parr Highway.

The contract with Republic is for hauling material collected at the center to a processing facility operated by Recycle Ann Arbor. The material itself will be owned and marketed by the county.

Market fluctuations could mean there will sometimes be income and sometimes a cost to have the material accepted, said Marshall.

By using compactors, he said, there will be an estimated five times fewer truckloads hauled to Ann Arbor. The savings in trucking costs is expected to repay the cost of the compactors and hold down the expense of running the collection center, he said.

Marshall said one to two containers a week are expected to be hauled from the center.

A contract is still in the works for a business or organization to open and close the fenced collection center on weekends and holidays when county maintenance staff members are not available. Marshall said the center is to be closed only on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas and on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.